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This is the first time I’ve gone through a book as a sequel while I did edits. It’s a very interesting process which is a bit different than the first. The characters are established, so it’s more making sure they’re consistent in their actions with the first book (having grown) than it is ensuring you get that proper voice. They’re familiar people to me at this point.

The world building is the same– already done, already established. So it’s about making sure that the feel is the same as before.

So in a lot of ways, it’s easier. It’s familiar ground that’s been done before, but on the other hand, it’s more difficult because expectations are there.

It means the timelines have to be perfect, the consistency has to be perfect otherwise the readers are going to cry foul.

I had to go through the first book several times and hunt for references I know I made. I have a nice world sheet where I have names/dates/references handy, and as I mentioned last week on the blog before I set about this I made sure I had a timeline made (which I posted up for my Patreon subscribers to be able to see) . All of that helped me get into the mindset to pick apart the details of the world.

For me, I already know the structure of the novel is fairly sound. Before I ever set pen to paper — I’ve gone through a process where I have written a brief summary of the plot, then outlined it, then revised the outline. So keeping the flow and plot holes to a minimum have already been done even before my first draft starts. I may add or subtract a scene here or there if I go through and read it and some vital information was missing or the pacing feels off or redundant, but because of my detailed process to begin with, I don’t have to worry about it much on that level. It may vary depending on your process in this regard.

But the consistency and details are what’s super important.

Larry Correia actually posted some nice advice on his facebook the other day. He said he likes to go and listen to the audiobook of his work before going into a sequel like this — and I think this is great advice. The reasoning is the audio, hearing someone else read it, gives you a perspective where you’re enjoying someone else’s work even though it’s yours. It lets you envision the details more clearly than if you were going into your work alone. If you have this capability on your first book, I would certainly advocate this for the sequel.

The act of creating a nice note sheet for world and timeline purposes is something that is good as well. You hunt through your prior manuscript for this information and it helps a lot.

I find often I have to go back and reference it, as well as my prior work. There’s a lot of “find and replace” involved to make sure names don’t change and ensuring those little things are present.

There’s no shortcut. Hard work is required. Don’t skimp on the details. That’s your most important task. And I need to get back to it!

Almost every time I open up a new Poul Anderson book, I find myself overcome with joy. I get strange aliens, a cool world with a lot of conflict, plenty of intrigue and action, and a g guaranteed sense of wonder and just joy of being in science fiction that a lot of modern authors don’t offer.

Ensign Flandry is the first book in a sequence of books in a future history Anderson developed for the period of the Terran Empire. There’s a lot of different books and the reading order is a bit murky overall, but Ensign Flandry is a good place to start to follow this particular character’s adventures.

It starts out not introducing the title character at all, but setting backdrops of both the Terran Empire — showing the decadence and decline of nobility, and a human commander on a faraway planet, where there are 4 species at play. There are two local sentient species, one under water, and one tiger or cat-like species that are fighting for dominance of the planet. The humans have taken the side of the cat species, and the Mersians have taken the underwater dwellers’ side. A series of incidents are escalating between the two and it looks like war is happening.

It’s odd at that point. I wasn’t quite sure about the book, though I’ve seen Anderson start books off in strange ways before. It was a lot of set up, and because you’re jumping perspectives so much there’s not a ton to latch onto, so it took me awhile to get into the book. In hindsight, I enjoyed the set up, but it was a strange start during the read of it.

Once we are introduced to Flandry a good seeral chapters into the novel, we find a fun, competent young character who appears as if he has the inexperience and follies of youth, but there’s a lot more to him than we see. He gets caught up in the struggles of the conflicts, and the humans scramble not to have this escalate into a full on war.

He gets conscripted into intelligence, and goes to the Mersian homeworld as part of an ambassadorial delegation. This is where we get some James Bond ish adventuring in space, but with a twist as Flandry doesn’t do a lot of the direct espionage himself. He’s often observing what’s going on and just happens to fall into a part of it, but it really works despite not being in the direct action a lot of the time. Flandry finds himself fooling around with his Imperial nobility’s concubine on the planet and gets himself into a world of trouble.

It only escalates tension from there. The characters are so well done. You end up caring a lot about Flandry and then Persis, the concubine. The conflict with the Mersians progresses in such an interesting and different way as well. It’s very imaginative all the way around.

And then Anderson puts a final twist on it which I won’t spoil. That’s where it gets really interesting. The wrold was so well developed in this fairly short novel, and the conclusion is entirely satisfying.

I might like this book even better than Fire Time, which is my favorite Anderson book so far. It’s tough to say. This had an extra fun factor to it where Fire Time felt a little more serious. I’m excited to continue this series and read more adventures about Flandry. Baen has done a great job collecting these in their “Technic Civilization Saga” series for easy omnibus reading.

The usual suspects are triggered like always. They can’t just enjoy what they like and have other people enjoy what they like and get along. They have to diminish, demean, and destroy. It’s all they have now.

I.e. they’re not people active in their circles. It’s funny they’d say this about Jody Lynn Nye, who’s one of the most prolific writers of the last century, a NYT Bestseller, co-writer with Anne McCaffrey, co-writer with Robert Asprin, and one of the best storytellers alive. She is more than deserving and never got any attention on the awards circuit, and I think it’s a big shame. But… because the Narrative that this slate is irrelevant must prevail, she must not be worthy.

Richard Fox and Mark Wandrey outsell everyone complaining about the slates combined. They’ve still got their head in the sands pretending that indie is irrelevant and doesn’t exist. It’s the only market where people actually buy books, and it’s gonna be a couple more years before these folk stick their heads up and say “what happened?” when they’ve got no readers left from alienating everyone in favor of their clique.

Your writing is terrible, no I haven’ read it.

The poo-pooing of Gravity Of The Game, my novella in which I already received a dozen messages in support of for the best novella category. Just because of identity. It’s a very diverse book, with good intrigue, a true science fiction concept in the classic sense, and a heartwarming ending. But they’ll never know, because they already know. They’ll tell you so. Shows their hubris again.

‘Maybe they should check out my reviews of that and For Steam And Country. Readers love what I do. Not my fault this crowd’s not in touch with the market.

THAT BEALE! I’LL GET HIM NEXT TIME AND HIS LITTLE RABID PUPPIES TOO!

Vox Day’s existence triggers them beyond triggering. Especially since Castalia House is growing so well and he’s more successful every year, and there’s nothing they can do to stop him.

DADDY WARPIG OMG #GAMERGATE

DW is a great fan writer. He writes extremely passionate, fun, and well thought out pieces. They don’t want to acknowledge him over identity, and are triggered by his existence.

BRIGHT IS THE AWFULEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME OMG!

There was a narrative going on about this movie before it came out to diminish it calling it the usual things: racist, sexist, derp derp derp. And identity is all that matters. It doesn’t matter that Will Smith was great, that the movie is fun. The narrative political element is all they need. They probably, like my books, didn’t even see it.

ETHAN VAN SCIVER IS A MEANIE PANTS… BUT NOT AS BAD AS THAT VOX DAY!

Pretty predictable reaction here. They again, don’t care that he’s one of if not the most talented line artist working out there today. But who needs to look at art or read books to ensure the proper people win hugo awards? It’s about respectability. And Ethan is a Republican. How could anyone literally even?

MOIRA GREYLAND IS ERASED.

The writer of The Last Closet, who exposed the pedophilia going on with the elites in science fiction fandoms with their disgusting lifestyles harming children — even at conventions like worldcon. No one stops them, no one speaks out about them, it’s a dirty secret which these folk don’t want out, and so they won’t even mention her. They’re covering up for this sort of behavior, and don’t want to admit the toxicity within their own ranks. Part of the reason they try so hard to make sure I’m not present, because they know i’d expose it.

It’s been pretty fun and only less than 24 hours. I’ve noticed the talk of the Hugos is very low, very few people care about this award anymore. Between what they did the last several years, and the way WorldCon shamefully discriminated against me for being a political figure, they’ve created the most exclusive, non-diverse, smallest clique possible. It’s amusing to see how upset they get just by someone voicing different opinions for what books are best. It’s that crazy.

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Hugo Nominations just opened, and we’re a month since Wolrdcon made an unprecedented move by banning me from attendance without giving much of a reason, but defaming me on their website and calling me a “racist bully.”

The leadership of Worldcon has made it clear that they are not willing to extend protections to political figures they disagree with in this action, as they didn’t talk to me, didn’t respond to my concerns for my and other conservative writer’s safety when I broached the subject in November, but instead took this shameful action to discriminate against me because of my political beliefs.

But we the writers and fans can send them a message. The Hugo Awards are still a part of this convention, and you can nominate my novella, “Gravity Of The Game” for best novella.

Reviews are extremely positive for this classic science fiction tale. It’s in the spirit of science fiction past, when everyone was welcome at a Worldcon regardless of creed or beliefs. It presents a welcoming future, where we can get along as a society, and this is the vision of the future I want to present in my science fiction. This is the vision the gatekeepers in science fiction are trying to prevent from spreading.

The novella has gone out to everyone on my mailing list for free, and it’s available on amazon for 99 cents. If you’re planning on nominating for the Hugos, I’ll happily send you a copy. The message needs to be sent that both we love fun science fiction, and that their behavior is not acceptable.

I take some pretty detailed setting notes when writing books, and I’m glad I have those, but something I hadn’t done in my book ones of series, is set up a detailed timeline of my universes. As I’m getting into sequels, I find this increasingly important to have as I’m referencing past events in the world and honing the universe. In terms of The Stars Entwined, my forthcoming space opera novel, I actually am writing several overlapping stories, so it becomes essential rather quickly.

I worked this weekend putting together a basic timeline for my steampunk universe, and I’ll be doing The Stars Entwined next, just as a reference sheet. Any odd locations, events, past matters, I’m putting into the timeline, so that I can have a clear picture of where I’m going as this goes forward.

In my steampunk universe, I’m not jumping around in the timeline so much, but I do open up each chapter with a “Baron Von Monocle’s Log” which helps frame the chapter as well as tell a story from Zaira’s father’s time. Getting all this straight and accurate is important and becomes more so as multiple books reference multiple past adventures.

If you’re writing a series, timelines are very important, and I suggest doing the work as you write that first book to prevent going back and having to read through and find the various points, especially if you’re telling some epic tales where there are numerous side events the characters don’t interact with that may become important to the story later. This kind of prep will save you time and also help you build a more detailed, realistic world for those future books to keep the readers engaged.

My readers will find a LOT of easter eggs from seeming throwaway stories from For Steam And Country that the characters told, as they become important in future books. A lot of these I’ve intended from the start, but it becomes increasingly important to get the details straight as the books go on.

What makes writing a tough business in my opinion is not really the work involved, the constant need for marketing, or even the overwhelming industry pressure to “conform or be cast out”, but it’s how long it takes to get a sense of accomplishment.

While it feels good to finish short stories and the like, one can’t help but feel like they’re floundering when writing several of those and trying to submit to market. Very few people read short anthologies or magazines so even if you beat the astronomical odds and get into those, very little feedback will come your way and this is often where writers burn out because they feel like they’re spinning their wheels.

On the novel front, it takes so long to complete a novel and get one released that it creates much of the same feeling. It’s hard to just be content with the work — not only until you’re finished with it, but until you release it.

And sometimes even that doesn’t satisfy the feeling of the grind. That’s normal, I think. The goal is to push through it, keep going, and continue working. You have to not allow yourself to burn out.

Part of the way I handle this is I regularly post word count updates on social media or percentage updates of a project. No one really cares about these kind of posts, they get less engagement when I have new product, say something funny, or whatnot, but unlike most of my postings I don’t do these so much for my audience, but I do it for me.

I’m a firm believer in self-talk and how you talk to yourself and about yourself reflects that way to others. Yesterday I spoke with an author who was being apologetic about a post in terms of self-marketing, I told this author to reword it. Don’t be ashamed of your work, you should be joyful in your work. If you’re not, it comes across.

And I think that self talk matters not only in marketing, but also in the ability to get through some of the more sloggy aspects of this business. The self-talk extends to social media as well. When I post “I wrote 2k words today on the James novella and it’s got one more scene to go before it’s done!” I’m also telling myself I made a major accomplishment, when otherwise it might not feel like it because of the lack of release-feedback.

I think it’s handy to do, and it’s almost a reward for finishing work at the end of a day. It gets harder when I’m working on marketing/business contracts for most of a day for various projects because there’s not much to post on those, but even then, at least internally, I stress that it’s important to take pride in the small victories.

On my front, I’ve been quiet with releases for awhile. It’s been since last June since I’ve come out with a major release, which in a lot of ways is far too much time, but I’ve been readying a LOT. My next book, The Stars Entwined, took me 17 years to get it where it’s at from original concept to my complete rewrite and overhaul of it last summer.That’s a long time for not much accomplishment, and it’s really hard to come back and do work on it when I’ve got so many new projects in front of me after the concept is that old in my mind. But by the same token, it is a fresh product, I did finish it, it is the major space opera world/universe I’ll be setting a lot of future stories in, because it turned out really good.

I won’t have much real sense of accomplishment until it releases in March, but I do take joy in the work in between. It’s crucial to maintaining hard work and good spirits as an author.

If you like all my hard work and you want to see some cool stuff I’ve accomplished along the way, including draft chapters, deleted scenes, and really awesome short stories (February’s is a prequel to a novel I’ll be coming out with in the summer), then check out my Patreon. You’ll get great content at lower rates than most authors out there and join a great tight-knit community in the process.

I’m back for another round of brief reviews of all the comics this week as I couldn’t pick just one. I missed last week so there’s a smattering of titles in here.

Go West #1 (Alterna) by Gareth Gunn and Saint Yak

A post apocalyptic horror about a man who’s family gets slaughetered and he goes out to get revenge. A lot of visceral moments, art is nice. I like the simple, yet very clearly horror coloring style, it works well with the book. Overall, I think I typically see more vignette pieces from Alterna that don’t offer enough worldbuilding for the complete story, but what we do see is always fun and very easy to justify with their low price point. Enjoyable first issue. 8/10

Silencer #1 (DC) by Dan Abnett and John Romita Jr.

I picked this up on a whim. Art wise you like Romita or you don’t. I tend to like him because he’s very expressive. This book really is a great opener for a comic. Lots of personal drama, good tie in to the DCU, fresh characters who you care about in personal situations and good battle alike. A very promising start. 10/10

Ninja-K #3 (Valiant) by Christos Gage and Tomas Giorello

Giorello is one of my favorite artists working today, and this book is absolutely beautiful visually. The story has some good action and an interesting backstory of a Ninja-C from the program. I think Valiant has a tendency to get repetitive in its overarching storylines and pushes a dark “you’re not really fighting for good like you thought you were!” a little too often. It gets tired after a few books of it, but on its own this issue stood well. Valiant really needs to focus their worldbuilding and line so it’s a little tighter. 8/10

Quantum & Woody #2 (Valiant) by Dan Killbesmith and Kano.

The layouts on this are a jumbled mess, hard to read, and the storyline is very choppy. I gave it a second shot after the first issue but I think this is it for me. The art looks pretty enough but as a comic, this is pretty close to unreadable. 3/10

X-O Manowar #11 (Valiant) by Matt Kindt and Ryan Bodenheim

After what I believe was a filler issue to give purely villain background, we’re back to Aric and his planet where he’s become Emperor and everything’s fallen apart. Bounty Hunters come to take him down, which we find out is a betrayal. It’s got some call back to the previous series (Kindt really likes the character Gin-GR I see) and is the most standard comic storyline of the series so far. Thoroughly enjoyed the story. It’s also the weakest art of the series so far with the new artist. Coloring’s off in spots and Aric’s beard looks unnatural, so points dinged for what otherwise was a great book. 8/10

Robyn Hood: The Curse #1 (Zenescope) Chuck Dixon and Julius Abrera

Zenscope has been running with this modernized Robin Hood character for awhile, but this is the first I’ve read because of Dixon’s involvement. Art is phenomenal, 90s Top Cow style, while Dixon spun a very fun tale. There’s some cheesecake lesbian innuendo which I laughed at, but overall this is a good start to a miniseries 9/10.

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I had so much fun with the SOTU speech last night, mainly because I waited for interesting rhetorical and visual moments and made some wonderful memes.

Memes are about the most effective persuasion tool out there. Humans by nature are visual creature, so when we see a simple message paired with an image that’s either humorous or poignant, it resonates with us, and sticks with us (which is why you see so many copycat memes. I’m going to officially declare the guy looking at the girl walking by while his girlfriend is pissed officially dead btw — stop making memes with that! It’s 2018’s Gene Wilder “So you’re saying…” meme at this point.). It’s that simple. Effectively wielding them can really turn you into a powerful persuader, even if you’re stealing memes like I did with the one above in this post.

But as Vox Day adeptly said this morning, the whole line itself was a stolen meme, and a brilliant move. It’s the only thing that will be remembered in the coming weeks. This is the power of memes. If you haven’t figured them out yet, it’s something to work on.

The reason memes work is the simplicity of it. I’ve seen a lot of people make common mistakes which are easy to avoid: 1. try to crowd too much text into memes — you can’t do this. simple is everything. 2. use a picture that’s no appropriate for the meme (or of yourself to try to make you into a meme) this is a no no. 3. Advertise or try to put a social media handle into a meme — again, defeats the point. let the message breathe. Anyone seeing advertising in a meme will be turned off by your meme.

Simple stuff to make your messaging in memes more effective. And we’ll have more great meme wars to come. 2016 was just the beginning.

Yesterday I spent some good time talking to a great professional and industry colleague, Timothy Lim. We’ve of course communicated a bit online over the last several months, but this was the first conversation we had. In the age of digital communication it’s almost easy to forget about voice and other humans who are on the other end of the screen, and it’s actually nice to have a reminder that someone else is there.

But it’s also great because it solidified just how closely we are aligned and how we’re on the same page.

This is the beginning of a movement in culture. For the first time in more than a generation, people are coming out and speaking and are proud to state their beliefs, pushing back against a monolithic SJW control of music, games, books and film. The SJW elites in these industries have grandstanded for decades, rubbing it in the face of the populace, talking down to everyone as if they know better than the regular folk because they’re “the artists.”

They haven’t cared that the audience doesn’t love their message. They defiantly declared “well, you’re the problem, audience.” They haven’t cared that despite their message being diversity and inclusion, they have ostracized and condemned anyone who thinks differently than them. They openly conspire to physically attack or blacklist people on the right from their conventions, and then began to ban people under the pretext worrying about their own safety. But why are they acting like complete lunatics?

Because we’re finally in an age where we can produce and release our own content. The internet has changed the game, and they don’t know how to use it. They don’t know how to employ their messages in this medium, they’re not interested in learning it, and the barrier to entry and gatekeeping have evaporated, allowing messages they don’t like to get through–ones they would have never allowed published in the decades before.

And it’s happening. Lim’s book Thump had to go to seven different printings as it went viral. People are starved for funny content that isn’t down in the dumps, dark, or negative. It’s why people love my books so much as well. There’s a lot of what seems overwhelming screaming going on simply because we release content, and we speak out, and we tell them “no, we won’t be afraid, and no we don’t care if we’re respectable to you.” Guess what? Readers love it. Both the attitude and our works.

And it drives them crazy. We’re supposed to lay down, be quiet, be contrite that they hate us. Realize the error of our ways and be made an example of like they intended.

But we’re not going to do that. Why? Because We’re winning.

The mere act of defiance by continuing to speak out, continuing to make content, continuing to gain readers is important, subversive to the lockstep control of entertainment, and winning by itself. We’re only one year into this and the growth rate is incredible– and not slowing down at all. This is the new counter culture. We are the new punk rock. And people are starved for our content.

If you ever were afraid of speaking out, thinking that you can maintain the respect of the SJW cabal and keep to yourself, it’s not going to work. Join us. It’s more fun over here. We can say what we believe and not worry. Our people actually are open and tolerant. We know how to use the internet to its full potential and have fun with marketing. It’s a brand new world out there.

It’s just going to get better. 2018 and 2019 are going to be huge growth for the movement as more people discover us, people who have tuned out of culture because they thought no one was making it for them. There’s millions of readers out there, and they’re waiting for you and me to show them de wae.

Come rally to the cause and see what the fuss is about. The reason they work overdrive to blacklist me is my books are so good they’re not being ignored. You’ll probably enjoy them too. Join us and check out For Steam And Country.

Today marked the release of Akrhaven Comics’ 2nd outing, the first issue of the adaptation of P.G. Wodehouse’s classic, Right Ho, Jeeves. I’m a reader who’s coming in not having read the book in which it’s been adapted from, so I can’t comment on how faithful it is to the original, and I come at this purely from a standpoint of “is this a good comic book?”

What’s interesting is by the nature of this story is there’s a lot of potential for talking heads. When I mention this in comics, it usually means a lot of “telling” or having people talk back and forth which doesn’t communicate a story well in a visual manner. Dialogue drives this book. It’s a humorous book based on wit and character alone, and it’s actually very daring as an adaptation as a second outing because of that.

I’m pleased to say that Dixon and Kwapisz managed to change the sceneries, the characters, and have them DO things to keep the story driving and flowing. It’s a cut above most comic books I see when it comes to heavy dialogue,and it’s a testament to the skill of the artist and writer how well they pulled this off.

Dixon introduces all of the characters in the story on the first page, giving a pertinent description along with a visual. The visual is where this really takes off as the characters are so well defined and cartoon-ish looking, just like they should be for a comedy like this. They nailed the classic cartoonist feel to a tee, and it instantly prepared the reader fo what was ahead.

As the scenes ensue, there’s a couple of plots going on — one in which Bertram (the main character and narrator) is forced to get a job, and another in which Augustus Fink-Nottle, a silly looking man, dresses as the devil to try to impress a woman at a party, and of course it goes disastrously wrong.

What’s amazing to me is how adept Dixon is at giving the characters different voices in the dialogue, while simultaneously ensuring that the reader has to read this in their minds with a British accent. Coming off reading a vastly different book by Dixon in Robyn Hood #1, in which he captures a modern girl playing superhero in her young 20s in America, the pure depth of voice and breadth Dixon can reach is really astounding.

Likewise the art by Kwapisz is amazing. There’s some extremely detailed panels, keeping with the cartoonish styles, but he even shifts the tone of his art for flashbacks depending on the vantage point. There’s one scene in particular in which Fink-Nottle sees himself a a hero and the art switches to his vision of the world and it’s very nice to look at. Bonus points to Kwapisz as he drew horses in the same cartoony manner and pulled those off — as any comic artist will tell you, horses are extremely hard to draw, let alone give distinct character like in this book.

This isnt’ an action-adventure comic. And it would be foolish to read it as such. This is a literary work turned into a literary comic with humor and cartoonishness playing a large part of the theme and aesthetic. And by Jove, Dixon/Kwapisz nailed it. If Arkhaven keeps up this kind of quality, they’ll be competing with the big companies in no time.